A new report of the search and rescue organization Sea-Watch records 60 violent incidents by Libyan militias such as the so-called Libyan coastguard, against migrants as well as civil and EU state actors at sea since 2016. 54 of the recorded episodes were committed by the so-called Libyan coastguard. For the first time, the research brings together a significant data collection on extreme episodes of violence in the Mediterranean committed by Libyan actors. The document is published only days before East- and West-Libyan delegations are welcomed in the Frontex headquarters in Warsaw and at the EU Commission in Brussels. East Libya is a regime under the control of the convicted war criminal General Haftar.
The report titled ‘Episodes of violence by the so-called Libyan coastguard and other Libyan militias at sea: 2016 → September 2025’ references all documented incidents of violence at sea by Libyan actors since 2016. Nevertheless, the number of unreported cases is estimated to be substantially higher. Recorded are shootings, incidents involving the deaths of migrants, hijacking of rescue ships, and other violent episodes such as intentionally performing dangerous maneuvers and chasing boats in distress, hindering rescues, threatening rescue crews, beating persons in distress, and abandoning dead bodies at sea. Minimum 54 of the incidents were committed in international waters, either in the Maltese or the so-called Libyan search and rescue region. People on the move are by far those most affected by violence at sea. The document only compiles the most visible and direct forms of physical violence happening in a system of interceptions that is, by nature, illegal and coercive. In 2024 alone, the International Organization for Migration recorded more than 21.700 persons abducted to Libya, where they are facing systematic torture, slavery, and sexual violence.
Bérénice Gaudin, Sea-Watch Advocacy Officer, comments:
We have been documenting the EUs construction of a system of crimes against humanity in the Mediterranean for years. Every new agreement with Libyan regimes, every extension of mandates, legitimizes this violence. It is absolutely outrageous that Frontex and the Commission are now rolling out the red carpet on EU soil for militia men shooting bullets at migrants and our rescue ships.
Sea-Watch’s report is published only days before West and East Libyan delegations are to be welcomed at the Frontex headquarters in Warsaw and the EU Commission in Brussels. East Libya is a regime under the control of the convicted war criminal General Haftar.
Just last weekend the initiative Alarm Phone reported another shooting against a boat in distress committed by the so-called Libyan coastguard in international waters. One person was reportedly shot in the head and two more were injured. At the end of August, the rescue ship Ocean Viking came under 20 minutes of heavy gun fire. One month later, the rescue ship Sea-Watch 5 was shot at as well.
